Check



E. E. SCHMIDT.

CHECK. APPL'ICATION man 1AN.18.1919.

E. E. soun/HDL CHECK. APPLICATiON FILED JAN. I8. 1919.

ES WW,

i UNITED '-srnrns PATENT OFFICE.

, E. SCHMIDT, or COVINGTON, KnNTUCxY. l

raised check. V

. My invention consists in the new and im- `proved -article of manufacture and in the combination of parts comprised in said arti ele andfin the details of construction and y ,arrangement of these parts, as well as in the.

Improved method of use of said article, al]` of which will 'be hereinafter more `fully described and claimed.

In the dra-wings:l Eigure l is a facsimile of a check constructed and .used according to my invention as I prefer to construct and use it, and showing by dotted lines the use lof an ordinary writing pen therewith; and

F ig. 2 Iis a similarview showing a modification. As I prefer to construct and use my Iinvention and as shown in Fig. 1, the check is made up of 'an ordinary ofblong piece of paper or the like as is usual in making bank checks.Y It will be understood that this check may be loose from any other check, as when 1t 1s used as a counter check in abank, or-

it may !be assembled with a number of other checks, which may or may not 'be similar thereto, in a check book; and 'this assembly may be according to any desired method, as,

40 for instance, each check may form a leaf of the book and be attachedv at one end or side only, o'r a number of such checks may be comprised-in a leaf, of the 'book with proper perforations for, separating the .checks as 4.5; they are used. Also, any of the desired ad- ]uncts of a check boo may accompanythe checks; as, for instance, the leavesuor spaces for accounting audthe like.-

Also,- the face *1 of thecheckf'l'is' of-usual .50 composition andf arrangedient, comprising spaces for dthe check number date, name -of payee,`amount .in numerals'and amount in writing, and finally agline vfor the signature Vof the drawerof the check.` vIt will be nn- 55 .derstdl thatthis :nuchof 1the check isoldY 'bottom t and at the topf., thefdesignatiens Specification ot Letters Patent.

Application inea January 1s, 1919. serial No. 271,801.

'utilized for Vdesired one of the` desi Patented sepazs, 1919;

and well known and may be as shown and I i described, or may bernodied in any desired manner, as is well known `in the composition and arrangement of check forms. -It will also be understood that either the face or the 'back may bear 'any additional desig'nations or have any desired spaces foraccounting or the like; as when the'oheck is provided in the form of al voucher, or the like. In fact, 'none of the usual provisions 65 on 'bank cheeks interfere with my invention; t nor-does my invention impair any of the functions of any such desired ordina pro- 1vksions or adjuncts of the bank checkor the with the' interior of chelsea@ thus prf; vided.. for the ordinary matter of'a bank ycheckhthelmargins of the'fcheek, preferably abbottomii-bp and both ends thereof, are

the provision of amount designations in convenientv arrangement for indicating by a single means any ations. In associa 'tion'with these, there' 1s provided upon'the y face of the check a caution 2 as to how ref- 80 erence is to he made to the marginal indica tions as a. guide to correct payment ofthe check. y

It is, of course, desirable to .give to the marginal designations a range "as high as possible, and, as to the designations of the lower amounts especially, v y iently 'small intervals between eachktwo' desF ignatio'ns, Usuallythe intention isvnot to designate exactly the amount writtenonto i the face ofthe check, but to desi an approximate .amount-which shoulfInn t be exceeded-'in payment of the check. Thus, in4 the example, 'the check is 'C dra-wn for $4128.52 in the margin is 41.50. The! 'next lower designation 4 is 4 100' and the next higher designation 5 is M1200. lat is deemed sufficient to havesuch a', wide approximation in thela-r er .amounts because of the -diiculty 'i of cas .ing a check drawn amou'nlf the chec s y forz'alarge v It i'sa fact that persons practising ising of [checks very seldom-111s@ e as shown, the des 'gnationsbegn 5, 10van'd then ine rease .by fensto .,54O0. then bytwentyfives'to $51000 and from there the increase Vis by fifties. At the a series of 476 to have convenf e and the indicated ldesignation 3 95 which. have originally been drawn I fori/more than one Ahundred' dollars. In the 1015` y -e mipl are arranged in tiers 8of three designations each,

the tiers succeeding each other from left to right along the bottom 6 and from rightI to left along the top 7; At the ends .9 and 10, the designations are placed in sucl.cession runnmg from bottom to 'top at the gri ht end 9 and from' top to bottom at the' legt end 10. The entire arrangement is such that every designation reads horizontally along the check from left to right in the manner most convenient forreadingitl' Bv' this arrangement in the example shown, the designations run to 5700, It will be understood that the intervals between the designations-may be increased or diminished, or the number of designations to a tler S may be increased or diminished, or the j slze or spacing of the designations may be varied, so that a greater or less range may be afforded. I deem it desirable, however, to have a fairly close approximation Y 'of any desired amount amon the designa tions of lower amounts; and 1t Vwill be understood that any of these provisions may vary' according, to the circumstances encountered, or the'desires of the bank or other concern or individual. using or providing the checks. f

Although it is highly desirable to utilize as much as possible of the marginal space for these designations in.4 order to havev a fairly close approximationV of any glven amountfand at the same timehave as large as possible range of amounts, I do not, acf cording to -my invention, use the corner spaces l1 of the check for any of these designations. These corner spaces are left empty of designations, although they may 'bear any vother desired matter, as, for instance the dollar signs, asshown in the example. The checks are extremely liable to be torn at their corners, especially checks that are originally` assembled -withfother checks in a book; this tearing of theco'rners occurring tial in the subsequentnse of the?check, suoli I confusion is avoided.A This isespecially true .where the marginal designations'are indi` cated :by removing part of th'e material ord the check `asl in the preferred use illustrated herein. In that case, should 'the' cheek have had designations ina cornerspace-and part of this corner material Ahad iheen!- accidentally removed, the lhaalt 'vofiicial would not be justified in payigft'he,.heckiaccording to myinventionibecause hewould not be sure Vfor an indication:

ther the corner space. had contained a' -correct indicatlon` ornot, orf whetherthe removal ofthe.

crner Amaterial was meantv .it wouldbc correctto one designation,

permits only one .ployee is possible,

amounts, 4150 and 40 drawn, due 'some other In the example of Fig. 1, only such approximation of the exact intended amount of the check is possible as is permitted by a singleanarginal designation; and as bcfore explained, vit is the intention that th" check should not be paid for a larger amount than is, designated by the marginal designation indicated.

Variation of this, however, is possible aecording to the principle ot' my invention. as is instanced in the examplel of Fig. il, where a plurality of marginal designations are indic-ated and the highest amount for which pay the check is ascertained by adding together the amounts designated by the plurality of designations.

The possibility of use of a check in which the number of marginal designations is lim' ited to one, and, concurrently, the use of a check permitting more than one mar. ginal designation, greatly decreases the effectiveness of the check permitting only the lower nlumber of designations. For if the bank oflicials and employees become familiar with the 'cheek permitting more than and requiring` these to be added, and then there also come before them a check of the kind shown in Fig. 1 which marginal designation, confusion in the mind of the official or emso that he would probably pay a check of the kind shown in Fig. 1 which had been raised and its marginal indication raised by providing it with more than one marginal designation. For instance, if the check shown in Fig. 1, permitting only the payment of $4150.00, should have itsl face changed to call for $4188.52 hy sustituting an S for the 2 Vin the written amount. the amount designated in ilu-'margin could he raised hy indicating p40 at the bottom near the left end. Thus altered` this check might be readily paid by a bank if confusion occurred hetwccn this check and checks of the other kind .wherein the designation of the two to be added together. and thus give a close approxnmtion to $4188.52, would he correct. In this way the check would be paid for sixty dollars more .than

to the confusion between it and kind of check, possi-bly in contemporary use.

Therefore, while the marginal designation or :designations may constitute a sat'cl guard against all probable material altera- Ation of the written face of' the check, a furj ther safeguard Vagainst improper Ause of the many marginal indications are permissible,

thel amount for which it was and then by fifties to 4650.

of the lntended amount.

together with direc-tion not to pay more than the lowest amount indicated, either -upon the margin or upon the face of the check. Thus, in .the example of Figfl where only one l marginal designation 1s permissible, the direction is as follows: More than one marginal indication makes check void. Pa not vover lowest amount indicated. f Pre erably, the word one in these directions hasV its letters intricately formed somewhat after the manner of the engravin .on a bank note. This servesA to prevent t e changing of this word in the dr rections to permit of more than one xnarg1- nal indication.

In the modification of Fi 2, the designations begin at the left at t e bottom of the check with two tiers of ciphers, and theneXt three tiers read from l to 9 and the succeeding ones read to 1000 by tens This check is shown made out for the same'famount as the example of Fig. 1, and itwill be -seen that $4129.00 is indicated in the margin; thus approximating within forty-eight cents This vis done by indicating 4100 at the top and 20 and 9` at the bottom, the .amounts of thesev three designations added together showing the highest 'amount for which it would be permissible to' pay the check. This check as the advantage of.,thus more closely approximating the intended amount with its marginal designations; 'but it is more inconvenient both for the drawer'and payer,

`the former having to locate three designa- Itions in the margin and the latter having .-to note these threebefore aying the check. In the example of Fig. l, t ework of drawing the chec as well as the attention reuired in` paying` it, is much less; but at t e same time thev approximation is closei enough for all practical purposes Also, the

' less the number of marginal indications that must bemade and consulted by the drawer and payer, respectively, the less chance there is for mistakes. owever, it will be' understood that the use of more than one designation may be desirable in some cases; and, as before stated, it is necessary to carefully distinguish these dilferentsystems from each other by ysome such method as that exemplified. :In this modification of Fig. 2, in accordance with this method, the

check bears the directions 2. as in Fig. 1

except that threevinstead of one is con'- tained therein, vand this preferably.v as shown, is made up of intricately formed letters so 4that it'could not be chan ed'to a word indicating a higher permiss'il le num-v ber of marginal indications. I

It will be understood that in either ex- 'ample the wordingg'as well as the lettering,

of these `directions'may be varied to suit ref qi'urements, audit 1s not essential iniall cases l that any of the wording should beef intricatelettering; although thisis desirable for the reasonsjust given.

In thecheck permitting a plurality of` marginal indications as in Fig. 2, it is of course not necessary always to use the full number of permitted indications to designate the required amount. Thus, if the amount for which the'check was drawn were $28.52 it would be necessary 'only to indicate 20 and 9 in the margin; or if the check were $8.52 only 9 need be designated inthe margin. Thus, in these instances, only two and one of the designations, respectively, would be needed. Y Where only two are used, if the directions on the check permit of' three indications, the person desiring to raise the check could, if permitted to make the `third indication in the margin, indicate practically any amount he desired in the range of the designations and raise the check accordingly; and if permitted to choose the location of two ofthe three permitted designations, would have still greater freedom of the choice of the amount to which the check is to be raised.' l. prevent this by providing for locating the indications not needed in such a manner that they will not aii'ect the totall margirial designation. Thus, as shown in Fig. 2 by the dotted lines, the one superfluous marginal indication would be located in either one of the tiers of ciphers 8 at the beginning ofthe series; and if there were two superfiuous indications, one of them would be placed in each ticr 8. It will be understood that if the check permitted of fourmarginal indications, then it should have three tiers of ciphers, so thateither one, two or three superfluous marginal indications could 'he located without affecting the total marginal designations.' Likewise,

with any greater or less number of permissible marginal indications.

It will heseen that if the check is thus provided with the maximum number of marginal .indications at the time it is drawn, f

the person who -would raise the check lies no opportunity to alter the marginal desig- Vpirt of the material of the check margin.

owever, it is preferred that the material 'containing the indicated designation should not be removed as is the case with many have amounts designated thereon by punchlng. Also, it is desirable that the removal cards, checks, tickets and the like which of the check materialy should extend out to edge, leaving an open notch rather than f merely a hole in `the check. Such a removal of material-is altered or replaced with' far greater diticulty than a mere interior opening, such as usually provided by .a punch.

Moreover, punches are expensive, and 4to provide a punch for each cieck user would notch directed toward the designation indi-v cated, as seen at 12 in Fig. l.

According to my invention, such a notch may be very conveniently made in the check by placing an ordinary pen-point with its back down upon the margin of the check and with the point directed toward the designation that is to be indicated. The pen is firmly held down on the check in this position while the check rests upon some firm 4surface and then the opposite edge of the check is lifted and the check drawn over sothat the pen-point pierces the papcn/after which a further pulling'on the check lcauses the lateral edges of the'peii-'point to shear out the check material neatly and yleavethe notch 12. The correct. position ofthe point 13 of the pen 14 is shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 1 where it will be seen. were the above described operation pei'fo rmed.'t-he amount` 3300 would be indicated. Such a removal of part of the check material leaves a ragged edge in Athe notch which is not readily repaired by inserting other material.

The closely arranged numerals around the margin of the check also impart to the face of the check the appearance ot' an elaborately engraved document. as is desirable in articles of this kind. and siich marginal arrangement of the designations thus adds to raise the designated amount by prolonging the indicating mark inwardly of the check as would be the case were anyy of the tiers arranged so that their designations decrease in value outwardly.

It. will be understood that though the examples provide for indication of even dol-y lars only'. slight. modifications according to this principle will permit of indication of A cents also. Likewise. the cheeks are adaptindicationspermissible. so that this caution able to other monetary systems to indicate units or 4fractions of units.

It will be understood that my limproved check may be used without the part, ofthe caution 2 or 2 which specifies the number of will consist of the direction-to paynot over the lowest amount indicated. However,

cation leaving'. said chec the omission ot suoli part of the caution makes possible the confusion hereinbefore alluded t0.

In any case it is' preferable to also have on the face of the check a. caution against payment thereof should all of the marginal designations have been removed, leavingl it like any ordinary unprotected check. Thus, in the examples herein I also provide the caution 1 5, reading Void unless bearingmarginal figures for indicationof maximum payable amount.

It will be understood that although niarginal designations'and indications are repeateldy referred to herein and all of the ele'- meiits are described as appearing'upon the face of the cheek, it may loe-desirable under some conditions to vary the relative' location' of certain elen'ients,' ,as'.-`.,for instance. some .or all of the designations might be arranged other than upon the margin. or it might be necessary or desirable .to arrange some 0f the element-s upon the back of the. check or upon any sutablefattaelr ment thereto. In view of such contingencies as these, therefore, while'certaiii construc- Ational details are deemed preferable in .con-

nection with my invention, and I have shown and described these rather specifically in elucidatingthe constri'iction'an'd use of my invention. as is required. I do not wish to be understood as lbeing.limited tosuch precise showing and description. but. having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters-Patent isi t l. As a new and improved article'of manufacture.V a check of usual substantially rectangular formatiomhaving the usual space wherein to indite an indication of the -amount for which the check is intended to be drawn, and bearing, along one of its exposed edges. a pliiralityof designations, some of which. byimeansof-a sim le indelible indiof its original substantiallyfrectangular shape and of its original length and wdth'and with said exs posed edge otherwise intact without any material isolated projection, will indicate the maximum amount for which it is permissible to pay the check, and bearing a perinanent caution as to how many of said simple indelihle indications are permissible in conjunction withsaid designations', whereby care as to i exact positioning and precaution against,- alterati'on of any indited matter on said eheckl'are rendered unnecessary.

, Q. As ar'itlwl an'dmproved article of manufracture, a check havinga space for indicating the amount for which the checkis intended to be drawn, and, havin a plural- 4 ity. of designations, a plurality o which may eating zero amount and adapted to have-a superiiuous indication associated with it when the maximum number of indications l" possible to use on the check is not needed to designate said maximum amount.

3. As a new and improved article of manufacture, acheck having a space 'ior indicating the amount for which the check is intended-to be drawn, and having a plurality ofdesi ations, a plurality of which may be indicated to aggregate the' maximum .amountfor which the check may be paid,

and another designation on said check indicating zero amount and adapted to have 'a superuous indication-associated with it when the maximum number of indications possible to use on the checkis not needed to designate said maximum amount, and a caution on 'said check specifying how many vof said indications may be used to designate said maximum amount.

4. As a new and'l improved article ofmanufacture, a check having a space for indicat- .Y

ing the amount forwhich the check is intended to be drawn, and having a pluralty of designations, a, plurality of which may be indicated to aggregate the maximum amount for which the check may be paid, and another designation on'said check indicating zero amount and adapted to havea superfluous indication associated with it when the maximum number of indications possible to use on the check is not needed to designate said maximum amount, andl a caution on said check specifying howmany of said in;

dications 'may be used l'to designate said` maximum amount, the pai-tof said caution which represents the number of said indications being intricately formed on said check, for the purposes set forth.

5. As a new -and improved article of manufacture, a check havin a space for indica-4 tion of its amount, an bearing a plurality of designations, some of which, by proper indication, will indicate the maximum amount for. which it is permissible to pay the check, and bearing a caution as to how many indications are permissible in conjunction with Said designations, the 4part of said caution which represents the number of 4said indications being intricately formed on said check, for the purposes set forth.

i ERNEST E. SCHMIDT. I

Witnesses:

- JAMES N. RAMSEY, CLARENCE PnnDnw. 

